The hope is that up to 10,000 women will join in the Race for Life on June 1 in Portsmouth and researchers are stressing that the money they raise will make a real difference in the fight against cancer.

Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust has received a variety of grants from Cancer Research UK, which gets the Race For Life money, over the years and is working to find drugs that can be used to fight colorectal cancer.

The three-year grant of £35,000 a year is funding a post-doctoral research assistant to carry out the project to find out why drugs that work well in treating other cancers do not work for colorectal cancer.

Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust consultant pathologist and Translational Oncology Research Centre director, Professor Ian Cree, who is based at Queen Alexandra Hospital, Cosham, said: 'Getting cancer no longer means you will die, survival rates are going up and up all the time, which shows just how important Race for Life is in raising money to fund research and it's great to see so many people getting involved every year.

'We're looking at a particular gene involved in colorectal cancer and we want to find out why these drugs don't work for this type of cancer and if there are any ways we can make them work. We are trying to find the achilles heel of this cancer.

'Cancer Research UK fund a lot of this grassroots, basic research that underpins everything we do in treating cancer.'

Cancer Research UK is also one of the main funders of onCore UK, a cancer biobank that stores blood and tissue samples for researchers.

Prof Cree added: 'Last August, we were the first hospital in the country to bank some tissue.

'It can be accessed by researchers across the country who need specific types for their research projects.

'All patients have to be asked before we can bank their tissue and because of the cost involved we can only do about five a month but money from Cancer Research UK helps to fund onCore UK.'

• Are you taking part in the Race for Life? We want to hear your stories. Call reporter Sue Wade on (023) 9262 2165 or sue.wade@thenews.co.uk